Are you decluttering your home, too? I’d love to be able to share your success story with the KOAB community! Please submit the before & after pictures of your decluttering project.
Today’s little decluttering project focused on my tea and coffee cabinet. We have a wall of cabinetry in the eat-in part of our kitchen. You saw it before, when I decluttered the counter top. (P.S. That counter has really proven to be an ongoing ‘maintenance’ issue. I’m constantly having to clear it off!)
The far right, top cabinet is what we use for our tea and coffee “center”. Underneath the cabinet, on the counter, is our Keurig. We are regular morning caffeinators – and so this little “center” is one of the most used spaces in our kitchen. Plus, my husband loves to serve a wide variety of herbal and decaffeinated to our guests on Shabbat – and this cabinet is conveniently next to our dining room.
In the before picture you can see that we have a tons of stuff, and it’s all kind of just shoved in there. I took everything out, put it on our kitchen table and started to sort through it. I learned that we had a shocking number of tea boxes with just one or two bags left in them. I consolidated those and tossed boxes into the recycling. I also put our mugs by the dishwasher with our other glasses. It was a toss up which place was better, but since my children are charged with unloading the dishwasher, that change made it easier for them – and therefore more likely that the mugs will actually get put away.
The other change was that I decided to move our sugar into cabinet. Previously, we had stored the sugar in our “baking supply cabinet.” While that’s not an illogical place to keep your sugar, the truth is that I put a teaspoon of sugar in my chai tea every single morning. And it was semi annoying to have everything I needed for my tea BUT the sugar in a separate cabinet. I may eventually buy a second (smaller) sugar container, to keep with the tea & coffee supplies — and put the big one back in the baking supplies.
The key here is to organize “like” items with like items — so that you have everything you need in one central location (that’s why I said putting the mugs by the dishwasher was a toss-up). If you want to make a coffee & tea center, but don’t have a whole cabinet to dedicate to it, try using a basket or small tub, kept near your coffee maker.
The before and after aren’t drastically different, but they are much more efficient — and our morning caffeine is a faster and easier process. And this is a good thing.
Do you feel the need to get a better handle on the stuff in your house? Please join me for the 31 Days of Decluttering challenge (which is stretching out of much longer than 31 days – oops!)! Everyone is welcome!
Day One: Decluttering the Toy Storage Closet
Day Two: Decluttering the Top of a Bedroom Dresser (Finish What You Start!)
Day Three & Four: Decluttering the Master Bathroom
Day Five: Decluttering My Desk
Day Six: Join the Decluttering Challenge
Day Seven: Decluttering the Computer
Day Eight: Decluttering the Night Stand
Day Nine: Decluttering a Kitchen Counter in Less than 10 Minutes
Day 10: Decluttering a Bedroom Closet
Day 11: Taming the Paper Clutter
Day 12: Decluttering the Coat Closet
Day 13: Decluttering the Linen Closet
Day 14: Reader Share: Decluttering the Play Room
Day 15: Reader Share: Decluttering the Front Hall Table
Day 16: Is Clutter a Sensory Issue?
Day 17: Decluttering the Kitchen Cupboard (Food Storage)
Day 18: Clutter & Decision Fatigue
Day 19: Decluttering the Kitchen Pantry
Day 20: Reader Share: Keeping a Decluttered Pantry
Day 21: Decluttering the Spice Drawer
Day 22: Decluttering the “Her” Master Bedroom Closet
Day 23: Organizing and Backing Up Digital Pictures
We don’t have a large tea and coffee center, but one thing I found that helped us organize our tea was to get an organizer (we have this one amazon.com/gp/product/B0008DJVCC). I cut a piece from the box with the name of the tea and put it into the front of the section so I know what tea is what. It’s also easier and more attractive when I’m serving tea to guests.
I love the idea of cutting out the front of the tea box!